Cultivating Affection for God through Scripture Meditation & Memorization
July 4, 2024 | by: Michael Buckley | 0 Comments
Posted in: Guest Writers
Hello, Oak Hills! I’m honored to step in this week as a Touchpoint “guest blogger” during Pastor Dale’s well-earned sabbatical. —Michael Buckley
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night (Ps. 1:1-2).
Have you ever been discouraged while reading Psalm 1? If I’m being completely honest, I have been, especially about the word “delight.” As I meditated on the first psalm while writing this essay, I wasn’t sure why the word delight should be particularly discouraging to me. After all, not standing in the way of sinners, or not walking in the counsel of the wicked, or not sitting in the seat of scoffers is very, very hard. Avoiding sin is, in fact, impossible but for the grace of God. Yet, the second verse asks something which appears to be even harder; it commands not just obedience in action, but also a right affection, that of delight.
Perhaps you’re like me and you don’t usually associate “the law of the Lord” with “delight.” I certainly read scripture and agree that the law of the Lord is good, but who can conjure any affection in one’s heart? Aren’t we told by the world that affections and emotions well up in our hearts naturally, even mysteriously, and that we cannot control when emotions come and go? And surely delight is one of the most impossible-to-fake of all emotions? So, if we are blessed by delighting in the law of the Lord, who then can be blessed? What is more, we read that this seemingly impossible delight in scripture remains even after days and nights of meditation! Though I know and believe that God’s commands are not burdensome (1 John 5:3), my own experience usually falls so short of the psalmist’s delight that I am tempted to be discouraged by this fact.
Before I share an encouraging defense against this temptation, take a moment to think about the psalmist’s word “meditation” from the first verse. Dr. Joel Beeke, in his excellent essay The Puritan Practice of Meditation describes meditation this way:
The word meditate or muse means to “think upon” or “reflect.” “While I was musing the fire burned,” David said (Ps. 39:3). It also means “to murmur, to mutter, to make sound with the mouth…. It implies what we express by one talking to himself.” Such meditation involved reciting to oneself in a low undertone passages of Scripture one had committed to memory.
Once I began to wrestle with—to meditate on—Psalm 1’s implications, I realized that just as God strengthens us to avoid sin through the power of his Spirit (Eph 3:16) so he renews our minds and our affections through his Spirit, as we obediently put on the new self (Col 3:10). Far from being discouraged or anxious, we can be encouraged to ask God for this humanly impossible outward and inward obedience that Psalm 1 requires, knowing that God hears and answers our prayers (Phil 4:6).
Therefore, I want to encourage you, reader, to continue to take hold of the outward, ordinary means of grace with which God has blessed his church. Train yourself (1 Tim 4:7) to delight in the reading, meditation on and memorization of his word, “receiving it with faith and love” for this is how we are, through faith, “built up in holiness and comfort” (WSC 89, 90).
Church family, this is comforting good news!
